, and iran basically being a sponsor of bashar al-assad. so we had a productive conversation. both senator graham and i are in agreement, that now that a resolution is going to be before the congress of the united states, we want to work to make that resolution something that a majority of members of both houses can support. a rejection of that, a vote against that resolution by congress, i think would be catastrophic because it would undermine the credibility of the united states of america and the president of united states. none of us want that. but we do want an articulation of goals that over time will degrade assad's capabilities, increase and upgrade the capabilities of the free syrian army and the free syrian government, so they can reverse the trend. assad has received an abundance of support from his sponsors, russia and iran. finally, this is a regional conflict. this is not a conflict that is confined to just syria. lebanon is destabilized. jordan is badly destabilized. iraq has turned into an aiding place for al qaeda and islam